Merrywives’ Blog

The Safety Net mission statement states:

The Safety Net Committee brings together government agencies, nonprofit organizations and interested individuals who are working to open up communication, break down barriers and coordinate efforts to give people associated with the practice of polygamy equal access to justice, safety and services.

We (Centennial Park Action Committee) have taken Safety Net at its word, and our intentions being here are to assist to this end. But the events of this last week have left us with some concerns as well as the need to clarify some things.

1. The Attorney General is appreciated in his assurances offered to plural families to not prosecute adult, consensual bigamy. But apparently, the laws that exist making the practice of plural marriage a third degree felony in Utah make him neither able to make that guarantee statewide, nor to ensure the same protections once he leaves office. This creates a volatile and precarious situation for 30,000 plus Utah families that, as the unpopular minority religion in Utah, have been asked to open up their families and lifestyle, to eliminate the curtain of secrecy, and to work with agencies to better understand our cultures. We are puzzled and alarmed with the investigation into the Brown family. Are there boundaries to this “opening up” and elimination of secrecy that we should know about? Or should we, too, be concerned and apprehensive that you know our names and faces?

2. CPAC has been sincere in our actions and motivations to participate in Safety Net. We want to reiterate that we are interested in candid discussions that explore the barriers that plural families face in accessing services. We want our families to be able to participate in the safeguards that the law provides, yet plural families often find themselves at polar ends with the very institutions created to provide support services. We are sometimes disheartened when the conversations are not pertinent to this crucial endeavor.

3. While we find it important that our families respond to and acknowledge the rule of law, laws against plural marriage place us at odds with our religious conscience. We feel that the liberties offered in the First Amendment protect this right of conscience and the practice of the sacraments of our faith. These unjust laws leave us no alternative but to live in civil disobedience while we work to get the laws changed. We take heart in the lives and examples of the Amish, the Martin Luther King’s, the Rosa Park’s, and the Gandhi’s who have shown us the power of patience, the authority of right, and the sword of peace.

4. We would like to discuss solutions to the pressing issue of unconstitutional regulation and penalties of our family structures and religious practices. We are sincere in our petition to service providers and state agencies not to make decision about us, without us. We pledge our efforts to effect change to the current climate in Utah that leaves plural families disenfranchised within their own state, at odds with the offices charged with their protection and the agencies whose foundations are service for all of Utah’s families.
www.cpaction.org or http://www.merrywives.org